Chaos Bender

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

The sky was covered with dark clouds, deep rumblings from far away rolled across the hills. A gust of wind flew thought the trees at random; the swishing of the leaves and groans the limbs released adding to the ominous weather. It was if the sky was calling out to anyone who would listen, a warning.

Contact and grinding of metal broke through the sky's symphony as if telling the sky that it was too late. "Last chance, just give us your money and you'll live, boy!" the voice behind both metal and sneer yelled out as the sounds of grinding metal continued from between him and his target.

The bandana clad male spared a glance at the two others who were flanking him, twin daggers and staff held between the male and female. A push from the one in front of the fanged fighter brought his concentration back to the fore, forcing him to ignore the sounds of battle behind him, as he pushed his umbrella up and high to break the Tai Chi sword from grind on it.

"Yeah, like that's going to happen!" he roared back, forcing the bandit to hop back of leave himself wide open. A second later, he had to dodge backwards, the end of a staff thrusting where his head would have been from his right.

Sensing something from his left, from the dagger wielding woman, he empowered his legs with chi and leaped a few meters into the air, flying away from the trio. Narrowing his eyes, Ryoga flicked them between the three in leathers, while reaching up to his head and grabbing his bandana.

Those on the ground gawked at the accent the boy achieved, but quickly that washed away as they danced around the flying projectiles. The male with the staff took a second to see what was being thrown their way; his eyes went wide as he saw the yellow and black rods stuck in the ground around them. "What the he-AURG!" he tried to get out before searing pain ripped through his side as he threw a hand there.

Seeing one of the three gripping his side, Ryoga chanced a look to his rival as he touched back to the ground. Ranma himself was dancing with a female and male duo wielding twin sabers. The pair were working in well practiced concert, keeping the red shirted aerialist from getting a moment's rest to regroup. Ryoga almost gave into the thought to run over and interfere, but was forced to abandon it as he heard running from his right.

"Persistent jerks" he mumbled under his breath as he was forced to parry a flurry of dagger strikes from the quick woman rogue. He was so fully concentrated on blocking her barrage that he barely dodged in time as she attacked low as the tai chi sword wielding man thrust right over her head. Ryoga grimaced as he jerked his head back, seeing the shiny metal slicing through the large bangs of hair that hung over his face.

--

Ranma was going through his own harrowing experience around the very same moment as the bladed duo continued their prodding assault on the pigtailed martial artist. As they worked in tandem from the start, he could easily tell that this fight wasn't going to be as easy as the two or three on Ranma fights he had back in Norima.

Back home, everyone had their own agenda and only teamed up if they thought they could further it by fighting together, but they never actually trained together. Nor did they cooperate on the non-verbal level like these two were doing. On some sub-conscious level, he guessed they were siblings based off their looks, but never registered it on his conscious mind due to the mass strain he was enduring just trying to dodge everything.

Dancing to the side, around another synchronized strike, Ranma grimaced as the sleeve of his shirt was sliced open. It was at that moment, he saw a fleeting image of Ryoga parrying a barrage of strikes wish his umbrella. A wave of envy rolled through the tired fighter as he wished for something to parry with at that moment.

"Now!" was the only warning Ranma had to bring his mind back to the fight as one of the pair called an attack. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for the youth as his mind strained to calculate all the options open to him as the strikes came closer. At the last second, he sprang to action; jumping in the air while forcing his body even with the ground, barely missing the blades by millimeters.

It was while he hung in the air battle changing through ran screaming through his mind, 'Ya can't stay on the defensive, idiot! Take risks and give 'em hell!'

With that, Ranma's face contorted into one of rage as he decided on a new course of action. An instant later, the youth let out a grunt from the strain of forcing his body into a spin while still in midair. Pain ripped through his arms, as the millimeters he had a moment before disappeared as if he never had them, his spin causing slices to appear as his flesh dragged across the blades.

The pain only gave him focus, his eyes flashing as he threw out a leg with the spin. A split second later, a sword clattered to the ground as a male voice screamed out in pain. These caused the air bound fighter to grin as he used the purchase from his foot in the man's dislocated shoulder to push away from the female's weapon.

Ranma's foot touched the dirt for only a moment, as his mind registered the new battle conditions as they had changed due to his risky maneuver. The female was in slight shock, the male was screaming in anguish while holding his limp right arm, dislocated at the shoulder from the aerial fighter's counterstrike. As for himself, he felt his lifeblood trickling down his limbs, but rejected the pain the shallow cuts gave off.

The moment his second foot touched the ground, he sprung back into the fray, refusing to give up the shift towards his favor in the conflict. The crying auburn haired man failed to register this through the pain induced haze; this is until it was too late. He had only enough time to lower his head towards the pigtailed fighter crouched in front of him before the pain in his shoulder felt like a pin prick compared to the new wave.

Tensing up his arms, preparing for the technique, Ranma felt the wounds tear open a little more as his muscles contorted. He forced it out of his mind as he thrust himself forward and up into his opponent, firing off a Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken burst into the poor bastard's face and chest with a spine tingling battle cry. The victim of the chinese amazonian style only knew flaring red as Ranma's barrage lifted his limp body off the ground before the last hit connected, blowing the body a few meters away.

The bandit slid to a stop on the ground before just laying there. Saotome couldn't tell if he was still breathing at this distance, but to be truthful, he didn't care either way as the swordswoman screamed in rage and advanced, her own cry for his blood gracing the air around.

--

Bent almost backwards, the fanged yellow and black figure threw his umbrella into the air. The bandits that were assaulting him grinned as he had disarmed himself; though their looks changed quickly as he continued to throw his arms back towards the ground. A moment later, he almost had brought himself into a handstand before his body contracted and thrust out.

The swordsman growled out, "Bullshit", in frustration as he saw what should be near impossible. Now only had the kid thrown himself into the air from a handstand, it was almost as high as he had been earlier with just a normal jump.

This time, though, both unharmed bandits brought their weapons to bear in defense as they saw the boy's hand reach towards the never ending supply of bandanas again. Both sets of eyes went wide as the expected attack never came, instead flying over their heads.

The female's ponytail trailed her head as she twisted to the rear, knowing the intended target. "Koga!" came the panic filled warning cry. The injured man had just barely pulled his hand from the wound on his side and had enough time to grip his staff. His defense was feeble as the bladelike bandanas tore at him.

He spun his staff and dodged some, but with him as the only target he couldn't block all of them. The woman screamed his name again as she saw blood fly from new wounds created by Ryoga's attack. She had enough time to breath in again as his figure stood there motionless.

She never got to see him fall, as the sword wielding man yelled, "Look out!" She didn't even bother to look at where the attack was coming from, instinctively dodging in the correct direction just as the umbrella wielding fang dropped from the sky right where she was a moment ago.

A second later, the ground beneath the umbrella head caved in leaving a crater around five meters in diameter. The woman blanched as the image of what would have happened had she not dodged rolled though her mind. Giving her head a quick shake, she charged the boy, giving a cry that could have woken the dead as she gripped the hilts of her daggers fiercely.

From the opposite direction from Ryoga, the swordsman did the same, both timed to reach the figure in the crater at the same time. He had enough time to take a full breath as they saw his free hand reach towards his waist. They paid it little attention as they readied their attacks as the fool just stood there.

Just as they were about to slide their blades into him, they heard the sound of cloth sliding on cloth. A slight feeling of pressure washed over the pair as the boy let loose a battle cry before starting into a spin. The next thing the attackers knew, their attacks were blown wide with the sound of three clangs, as Ryoga wielded his parasol in his right while a sword, pulled from nowhere, was in his left.

As Ryoga continued the spin, the female had to duck as the parasol, which had blocked her partner's attack, came swinging at her head. The other bandit wasn't so fast, though, as while the girl ducked and spun with the directions her weapons were forced, the male felt metal sliding across his flesh.

Twin howls of pain were heard as both males felt the blades slide through them as the ponytailed female finished her own counter spin, slashing out into the boy's side.

--

Ranma was having an easier time with only one of the duo still up and fighting. She was wild with rage, but somehow keeping just enough of her wits about her to still be dangerous. Even so, he had time to breathe now.

The only thing that saved his life was his sixth sense, dodging at the last second when a giant rock flew through the air where he once was. 'What the hell was that?!', he yelled in his head, quickly looking in the direction it came from. He winced as he mentally kicked himself, 'Shit, I forgot about him!'

His eyes twitched in disbelief a second later when the forgotten bandit stomped on the ground, causing another large rock to hop out of the ground before it was sent Ranma's way via a metal hammer he held in his main hand. The pigtailed fighter rolled to the dirt to avoid it, but quickly found himself having to handspring in another direction entirely as a sword swung at him. 'Great... I take one down and another one joins in... and this one has some weird techniques!', he complained.

Even with the rocks flying at him, Ranma dealt with the fight like Mousse was throwing hidden weapons from the sidelines like he always did. It would take him longer, but he grinned as he thought about how he was going to take this girl down... 'I don't really like beating up girls, but damn it, she was trying to kill me with that bastard!', he reasoned.

Dodging another rock, Ranma slid towards the female switching to another roll as she sliced sideways through the air. Once inside the woman's reach, he sprang up to full stance. Before the surprised bandit could pull her weapon back to strike at Ranma, he started to deliver another punching burst.

He was about ten punches in when he threw himself to the side. The next thing he heard was the sickening crunch of rock on flesh. A few meters away, Ranma watched as the bloody mess that was the woman fell to the ground with a thud; the rock rolling away, a flash of red with each rotation.

He only had to take one glimpse at her before the pigtailed boy turned his gaze to the hammer wielding bandit behind him. Getting up to a standing position, he glared at the man. The bandit just stomped the ground again, no emotion on his face, and sent the rock flying at the boy again.

Seeing Ranma easily sidestep it, he tried two rocks. That was only marginally harder on Ranma, since he only had to dodge twice. Then the hammer wielding man noticed that each time Ranma dodged, the boy was moving closer and closer. This made the bandit grin for some reason as he sent two more rocks watching as the quick youth moved around them.

Without stopping, the bandit quickly stomped up two more rocks, flinging them down the shortening distance. When Ranma was dodging the first rock, the man's eyes flashed as the grin grew. Ranma barely registered it as the man stomped the ground again, just expecting a third projectile.

He slid around the second boulder looking for the third one to be flying at him. It left him wide open as the very earth beneath him became his enemy. Ranma barely felt the rumbling at his feet in time to look down before a diagonal column of rock shot out at insane speed to smash into his gut.

The world became nothing but hazy pain as his defense was blown through, not having enough time to reinforce him stomach with chi. His body flung into the air, he tried to yelp in pain but all that came out was a bloody cough. 'Concentrate!' he cried through his mind as he forced his eyes to focus on the only opponent left to him.

As the blue eyes slowly trained down the dancing image of the weird earth controlling bandit, he noticed him move his feet again, only dragging his front on in towards him, along with drawing his arms in the same way. Not knowing what exactly to expect, Ranma flooded his body with chi, trying to form an even defense over his entire being. It helped protect him, but he was fundamentally unguarded as the attack came from the rear.

Another jet of earth jutted from the ground, slamming into Ranma's back causing more pain. Even so, he wasn't completely unprotected as he felt himself blasted through the air towards the maniacally grinning bandit as he swung his hammer from behind him to smash in to the ground towards the flying Ranma. The boy barely had time to figure out another attack was coming before another jet of rock came out of the ground.

His eyes went wide as he realized that this attack wasn't blunt like the last two, but sharpened like a spear point. Grunting under the strain, he forced his body to move. It was either that or be skewered. After what seemed like agonizing seconds to the boy, his limbs decided to respond.

Reaching forward at the last second, he placed his hands on the spear, finding purchase on a spot just after the point. Using that as leverage, he wrenched his body up and out of the way, quickly pulling his arms back in afterwards. From that point, Ranma's blue eyes glowed as he channeled all his ki...

The bandit had expected the boy to be a dangling corpse on the end of his attack. When he saw the impossible in front of him, he gawked leaving him wide open to Ranma's counter attack, something he might not have even been able to defend against even had he not been dumbfounded.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

--

Ryoga had twisted to the ground from the biting pain the woman had inflicted, trying to get out of range for any more attacks. Rolling up into a weak defensive stance, the teenager stumbled as the effort caused a flaring pain in his side. He groaned as he saw the bloody blades driving in at him again, causing the fighter to parry the blows with his umbrella as he danced around her.

The ponytail on her head whipped with the rotation of her body as she reoriented herself on her prey, just as they both heard a familiar cry to Ryoga. Her eyes went wide before flinching away from the bright light and explosion that happened behind the fanged youth.

Hurt and tired, he decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. A second later, the dense improvised weapon in his main hand was smashing into the woman's side. He watched in slow motion as she bent unnaturally with the blow before being thrown meters away to roll on the ground. He kept his gaze long enough to feel she wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, before he looked around wildly for the swordsman that should have been attacking any time now.

When he did actually find the man, Ryoga let out a long breath and set his umbrella to the ground before starting to put his belt back around his waist. The man was lying face down on the dirt, a small pool of red liquid forming underneath the body. Ryoga just winced as he found the injury on his own person, looking down to see his own side red with thick ooze.

He just took a steadying breath as the wind whipped though the area as a thunderclap sounded from far away. The sounds of fighting had escaped the area and only the coming storm echoed off the trees and hills. "Hey, Saotome… You alright over there?" he called out while turning towards his traveling companion.

He found Ranma kneeling over a smoking body, his arms searching through the various pouches and pockets the guy had on him. A quick glance in one direction showed a path of three odd rock formations and rocks strewn around the battlefield. That wasn't counting the two other bodies.

"Yeah", came the simple reply from the red shirted martial artist. Ryoga noticed him pull something off the body and put it in one of his own pockets.

"What are you doing?" Ryoga inquired, as he placed a hand to his side unconsciously. The reply was even and controlled, "Taking anything of use."

Ranma took something else from the body before standing slowly and making his way towards one of the others. The observing rival just shook his head as he looked over and walked to the crumpled woman a few meters away. Reaching down, he took the large cloth sash she had like a bandoleer across her chest, and tied it around his waist as an improvised bandage over his wound. 'It's not much, but it's better than nothing…'

--

The minutes passed in silence, the heavens continued groaning and whispers were the only sounds heard by the pair, save their own feet moving them forward on the ground. Neither of them had said a word since leaving the bodies lying on the ground. There wasn't much that needed to be said...

Ryoga just let out a groan as he looked down at his bandaged wound. The pain was easy to force from his mind, but he couldn't stop the slow bleed. From what he could tell, it wasn't deep, which was what was confusing him.

Glancing over at the opposing teenager, he could see the bandanas he gave for bandages damp with blood, but those wounds weren't as bad as his side. Still, the yellow clad youth eyed his companion. 'Something's off...', he couldn't help but think, but he shrugged the feeling away as they continued to walk in silence.

The light began to wan as the day ran on and the clouds drew darker. The path grew more twisted as the hills grew taller around the two martial artists. It became such as that neither could tell how close they were to their destination, but they should have been getting close... if the information they gathered was correct.

"It won't stop..."

"Eh?" was all Ryoga could think to respond with at first. Scratching the sideburns of his raven hair, he continued, "What are you talking about, Saotome?"

"I can't stop it..." Ranma toned out, flat and even.

"What's wrong with you? It was just another fight! It's not like this is new or anything!" Ryoga shot back, eyebrow twitching as he threw a glare to his side. "Huh?"

Ryoga's annoyed mood disappeared instantly to be replaced with confusion once more as his intended target for the verbal barrage wasn't there. Stopping his forward movement, he shifted his eyes around till he turned around. "What's wrong with you?"

Ranma's reply wasn't forthcoming. He just stood still in the road, looking at Ryoga with hard eyes.

After a few more seconds of silence, Ryoga yelled out, "Hey, Saotome! I'm talking to you!" Growling, he balled up a fist and stalked towards the silent figure. The fact that Ranma still wasn't saying anything was really getting to the teenager, his fist shaking as he finally got in front of his rival.

Standing right up in his rival's face, Ryoga took a deep breath. "SAOTOME! Say something you bastard! What's wrong... with... yo..." his rage died out to be replaced with shock.

Right as he had finished his second sentence, the fanged boy had placed his hand on Ranma's shoulder and instantly felt something off. The feeling made him stare into the silent fighter's face. What he saw there in the shadows of the raven bangs began to scare him absolutely shitless.

A flash of lightning showed that Ranma's eyes were vacant. There was no life in them. Giving him a slight shake, Ryoga whispered out a low, "Oi..." That statement was repeated louder as a trail of bright red trailed out of Ranma's mouth, a second before he fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

The wandering youth was immediately on his knees, running his hands over his companion, sending his chi out. "Shit, shit! Not good", Ryoga hissed out through clenched teeth as he realized the situation his friend was in.

He wasted almost a minute running his hands over Ranma's abdomen, trying to force chi into specific points. A growl escaped the male, "It's not working!? Why is it flowing all wrong?!"

Then it dawned on him that's what Ranma was trying to say before he collapsed. 'I can't stop it...' ran through Ryoga's mind as he glanced down to his own wound. 'He's been trying to stop the bleeding since the fight... but something's not letting us heal using our chi...'

A moment later, Ryoga was running full tilt down the road, a limp body riding piggyback.

--

"...melody was pure beauty. She could even make the...", the man behind the desk spoke out, while righting the same on the paper in front of him but stopped mid sentence. "Um... make the... make the..." he repeated trying to find the right words to continue.

Just then a flash of lightning and the following clap of thunder pierced the heavy rain which clattered on the roof just over the man's head. As the light faded back to just the lantern hanging above his desk, he snapped his finger, exclaiming, "Ah! That's it!"

He quickly bent back over the paper, brush swishing as he spoke out, "... the foulest torrent turn into a spring shower, the darkest night into a bright new daybreak." Sitting back, he reread the lines he just wrote down, the ink still wet on the paper. "Pure poetry!"

The door chose that moment to slam inward, as a man in uniform yelled at the top of his lungs, "Lieutenant Gau!" The eyes that were but a second ago reading the lines of words snapped up instantly at the intrusion.

"What is it, Private? It better be important!" he said evenly at the young man before him.

"Sir!" the private replied, snapping to attention. "The Sergeant sent me to get you! She said you needed to see something immediately!"

Gau's eye's narrowed at hearing that. Yukia wouldn't have sent anyone if it wasn't really something important... "Take me there now!", he ordered as he grabbed his rain slick off the wall, throwing it on in haste as he followed the running private.

It was only seconds before the private led the lieutenant to the eastern gate, which his squad was charged with securing. As they ran along the rampart, the older man looked down just outside the gate to see figures in the rain. When the distance had lessened just enough, he noticed that most of them were his own men, a couple bent over at one spot.

Seeing that, he jumped from the wall falling dozens of meters along the wall. Halfway down the wall, a slab of stone jutted out, going the same speed as Gau, who landed on it and rode it down. It ground to a near halt, just feet above the base of the tall structure, before he jumped off to land a foot on the ground, breaking into a run over to his men.

"Report!" he demanded as he closed in, wanting to know what exactly was happening outside his gate.

"Lieutenant, these two came running out of the rain towards the gate. When they collapsed, we came to investigate." a female who was crouched over one of the bodies said. Another uniformed person was bent over right beside her, looking over the second of the two bodies which lay a little away.

"This one's injured. A slash to the side... maybe victims of the bandits?" she continued, trying to form a reason as to why. She turned towards her commanding officer but was stopped dead in her tracks as she looked back down.

"Save him..." a weak but determined voice spoke out. "He's dying..." the girl the soldier was just examining pleaded as she gripped the woman's arm. As the girls voice died out, so did her grip on the arm, her hand falling limp to the ground.

Looking up from the green haired girl at her feet, the sergeant asked what to do with just a glance of her eyes. "Get the 'water healer'..." he ordered as he glanced over to the redhead who lay on the ground. The figure defiantly was female, but there was no one else with the pleading girl. He just shook his head as he figured she misspoke in her half-conscious plea.

"You two! Help me get them inside! Slow and easy, now..." he ordered a pair of his subordinates to assist him. Gau flew into a few quick martial arts stances as a slab of rock jacked up under the redhead before cylinders of the same material appeared in a short line leading towards the gate. Step by step, the slab started moving with more cylinders being made in the front...

--

'Warm...' a fleeting thought broke through the haze. 'Feels... nice...'

The wave of warmth left though, drifting off into the darkness. Without it, it felt cold and dead... It stayed that way for the longest time before it came back again only to leave once more in a teasing dance.

'Why won't it stay warm?' another thought came through the mists again. 'It feels... good...'

The next time the flow of warmth came though, a will held onto it, trying to latch on like it was a tangible object. When the feeling started it's predictable flow away, the will fought it, digging in to try and keep it around.

'No...' the voice in the darkness said as the will persisted. 'I won't let you...' the voice continued with more vigor. 'I won't give up!' it screamed out, pulling the warmth inward while it tried to escape.

Blue eyes jerked wide open as her body slammed upright to a sitting position. She looked around, panic evident as her red hair flew wildly with her head jerks. She barely had enough time to register that she was in a room of some sort before she gripped her head with both hands, a scream of pain erupting from the female as she fell back down.

She could barely hear it, but she recognized another scream. A girl was yelling something...

"Shit! Doctor! Doctor!", the voice forcefully sent out, rising in volume with each word. "Hikaru, come here! Hurry!"

A few moments of pain later, the warmth returned to her body and the agony ebbed away. The two looking down over the girl saw her ragged breaths fade into a normal rhythm as she relaxed. "By the moon spirit... Don't try and kill yourself after I worked so hard to keep you alive..." an older woman admonished the resting female.

"Yeah, Ranma... We were worried you wouldn't make it..." another female, though younger, agreed. "Don't push yourself, you need to rest."

Pulling her arms back down to her sides, Ranma took a few steadying breaths. Slowly, she cracked her eyes open, the images blurry as thousands of figures spun and wove themselves in her vision. A moan escaped the redhead as her eyes slowly focused, reducing the thousands of females to a pair, one on each side of the bed she lay upon.

"Ry-Ryoga?" a weak but curious voice asked out as her eyes landed on the younger of the two.

There was a flounce of green hair as she nodded with a grin, "Yeah, Saotome. I'm here."

"You had us worried for a while, dear." The woman on the opposite side of the bed spoke up again. As she spoke, her hands ran along the teenager's body.

"How lo-ng was I out?" Ranma groaned out as the healing woman touched a tender spot as she spoke.

"You've been in my care for almost a week, now be quiet! You aren't completely healed and need to rest!" Hikaru ordered her patient, getting irritated at the girl. "Now lay still or I'll knock you out myself!" she finally said as Ranma kept squirming under her hands as she felt for weak points in the girl's chi lines. The woman let out a breath as the redhead settled down at that.

"What happened?" she quickly asked one last question, flinching at the death glare Ranma got from the brown haired woman. 'I think that's all I can get away with...'

"That's what I'd like to know!" a deep male voice said from the side. All three females looked over, but the redhead was the first one to react. Seeing the uniform, she just sank her head back into the pillow and groaned.

--

End of Chapter 4